Juventude Ecológica Angolana (JEA) / Ecological Youth of Angola
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
Mr. Constantino Mendes
Head: Department for Cooperation
National Board Council
JEA - The Ecological Youth of Angola
Travessa Comdte Kwenha, 5, 1º Andar, Maculusso,
P. O. Box 542, Luanda, Angola
Tel.: +244 2 33 74 73, 33 08 58, 399734
Fax.: +244 2 39 97 34, 396947
Cell.: +244 92 32 64 76
Principal E-mail (To): jea@mail.netangola.com / jea@netangola.com
Alternate E-mail (Cc): constantino-mendes@nexus.ao
Description
Juventude Ecológica Angolana (JEA, or the Ecological Youth of Angola) is the largest environmental non-governmental organization in Angola. Founded in 1991, it promotes environmental conservation and sustainable development in the country by facilitating and enhancing young people’s participation in environmental education, research, policy development and decision-making processes. Its 10,000 conservation volunteers are strongly committed to contribute to the Angolan government’s efforts for the protection of the environment and implementation of sustainable development in the country, taking into account the critical environmental issues affecting young people and their communities.
JEA’s vision is to ensure “that every Angolan becomes an environmentalist”. The organization attempts to achieve this through the following objectives:
- Protecting the environment and life supporting systems covering the country;
- Promoting environmental citizenship, including information, education, capacity building, networking and active learning;
- Ensuring sustainable use of the country’s rich natural resources;
- Ensuring environmental equity within the country’s sustainable development agenda, strategies and plans;
- Collaborating with key social actors, including government, business, civil society, academic and scientific community for an integrated approach in environmental protection and sustainable development in the country.
JEA’s work addresses environmental issues and challenges facing the country, including poverty, water, sanitation and human settlements; biodiversity loss; soil erosion and deforestation; drought and desertification; coastal and marine environments; urban solid waste; and lack of public awareness, education and information about environmental issues. JEA undertakes policies and projects, as well as implements actions in the fields of communication, education and public awareness (CEPA), capacity building, environmental database management, clean-up and waste-recycling campaigns, research and post-conflict environmental assessment, tree planting, reforestation and restoration of fragile ecosystems from the impacts of the natural disasters—droughts and floods—and mitigation of and society adaptation to environmental changes. JEA is a member of the IUCN, World Assembly of Youth, Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa and UN Young General Assembly. It also works together with the Government of Angola, primarily with the Ministries of Housing and Environment; Culture and Education; and Youth and Sports.
Governance: JEA is governed by a 9-member Executive Board Council composed of the President, the Secretary-General (CEO), chiefs/secretaries for the five departments as well as two senior advisors. It also has a General Assembly made up of 3 members; a President, a Vice-President and a Rapporteur. The Fiscal or Audit Council is the body tasked with the internal audit of JEA’s program of work and budget and comprises of 3 members.
A National Board Committee meets at least once a year with the members of the Executive Board Council (9), the GA (3), the Fiscal/Audit Council (3) and the directors of the provincial offices (8). JEA convenes regular elections for its governing bodies every two years. The national headquarters is located in Luanda and provincial field offices are in 8 of the 18 provinces of the country. The director is appointed by the President of JEA Executive Board Council based on consultations with the local members and the National Board Committee. JEA raises its funds from membership dues and contributions, grants, loans and sponsorships from a diverse range of national and international partners and sponsors. At the national level, the Ministry of Urban Planning and Environment is the main partner and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the main sponsor. Other partners and sponsors include British Petroleum (BP), Shell Oil Development Corporation (SHELL) Angola, Chevron Corporation (CHEVRON), Sonangol–National Oil Corporation of Angola (SONANGOL), Regional Office for Africa of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
Track Record
JEA’s track record in its 15 years of existence has been impressive. With its 10,000-strong membership, JEA has received international acclaim for its work.. In June 2002, JEA received the UNEP Global 500 Youth Environmental Award in recognition of its innovation and achievement in caring for the environment. JEA is accredited to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council, UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as well as of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
JEA is also a member of the UNEP African Civil Society Forum’s Steering Committee and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)’s Civil Society Organizations think tank. Between 1992 and 2006, JEA participated actively in the major UN conferences and summits on environment and sustainable development. These include the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit 1992, Rio de Janeiro); UN World Youth Forum (Havana, 1994); UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10 Summit, 2002, Johannesburg); 22nd UNEP Governing Council (Nairobi, 2003;) among others.
JEA also participated in the first-ever UN General Assembly’s Hearings with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Private Sector in New York aimed at receiving views on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the UN reform process. It also contributed to the proceedings of the second UN General Assembly Hearings with CSOs and Private Sector held on 22 June 2006, in New York, USA, which collected views on the Mid-Term Review of the Implementation of the Brussels Program of Action (BPA) for the Least Developed Countries for 2001-2010. Generally, JEA actively advocated on the need to take full advantage of the on-going reform process within the UN System-wide to strengthen the Environment pillar of the global multilateral organization, taking into consideration the internationally agreed Sustainable Development framework agreed at major UN conferences and summits.
Additionally, JEA has promoted partnerships with the Secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, IUCN, The World Conservation Union, the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA), the SADC Regional Environmental Education Program (SADC-REEP) among other institutions and projects.
JEA is currently participating in implementing national strategies on environmental issues such as the National Strategy for the Conservation of Biological Biodiversity; the National Program of Environmental Education; and, the National Plan of Environmental Management of Angola. JEA supported the establishment of the National Youth Council of Angola (CNJ), which is made up of national youth organizations and is involved in supporting other environmental initiatives in Angola.
JEA actively promotes focus on the environment at events such as the World Environment Day and has also targeted schools in Luanda and Huíla province. JEA also publishes a newsletter called “The Little Green” which disseminates information on the projects and actions of several NGOs and governmental institutions at national, regional and international levels.
Challenges
JEA has achieved its successes through its commitment to effect resilience in young people’s attitudes towards environmental and social sustainability. However, various challenges remain which retard the otherwise positive progress of the organization’s vision. Inadequate financing for its programs, initiatives and activities is one challenge.
Since 2004, with the institutionalization of the current Ministry for Urban Planning and Environment, replacing the Ministry for Fisheries and Environment, the Government of Angola has not directed funds to NGOs (even though the previous Ministry had passed an Environment Fund and the National Assembly (Parliament) had approved a special status quo for environmental NGOs, through passing the Environmental Defense Associations Act in November 2006). JEA is currently developing a five year strategic plan which addresses financing and programmatic challenges in a changing market.
Related to funding problems is the corresponding challenge of limited institutional support as a result of inability to retain qualified staff. Also, the high rate of unemployment has been an obstacle to environmental volunteerism in Angola.
Despite its dynamic performance, JEA is also affected by several obstacles to the promotion of sustainable development in the country. These include severe poverty and extreme inequality, social, economic and political instability, food insecurity, land degradation and desertification and lack of access to safe water.
Opportunities
Since its founding in 1991, JEA has delivered on its mission successfully, particularly in engaging the youth to embrace ‘environmental citizenship’. The organization has been able to fulfill its mission by taking advantage of multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnerships, particularly with government, parliament, judiciary, professionals groups, youth and academic associations, business and the scientific communities, as well as other civil society organizations. However, there are increasing opportunities to partner with like minded organizations both from within Angola, as well as from the rest of world. These networks have the potential of building movements and forces around the environmental issues affecting Africa and Angola in particular.
JEA presents opportunity for donors to facilitate the building of institutional capacities to enhance the few successes that have already been achieved in Angola and spread this further in the region and beyond. This requires training, institutional project support and enhanced funding for project activities. These aspects would be greatly enhancing communication to facilitate dissemination of reports to various stakeholders. The country’s long armed conflict made it initially impossible for JEA’s to expand. However, with the peace achieved since April 2002, there are plans to open additional field offices in the remaining provinces, namely those with a high population and intensive economic activity due national reconstruction which may cause considerable environmental degradation, if appropriate policies and programs and monitoring mechanisms are not in place. These provinces are Huambo, Zaire, Lunda-Sul, Uíge, Bié, Kwando-Kubango and Moxico.
